1929 Timeline

The year 1929 brought with it the end of the Roaring Twenties, and saw the Wall Street Crash which started a worldwide Great Depression. Globally, the Influenza Epidemic reached a large number of people, killing a total of 200,000 in 1929. Other major events in 1929 include the inauguration of Herbert Hoover as President of the United States, the independence of Vatican City and the arrest of notorious gangster Al Capone.

If you want to learn more about what happened in 1929, this timeline will give a summary of the year, with details of events that took place in each month. To read about a specific date or event in particular, a 1929 newspaper has everything you need.

January

January 3: By signing an arbitration treaty, Bolivia and Paraguay avert war over the Chaco region

January 6: In Yugoslavia, King Alexander suspends the 1921 constitution and introduces a dictatorship

January 10: Hergé’s Belgian comic book hero Tintin makes his first ever appearance

January 13: Newspapers that criticise the new dictatorship in Yugoslavia are banned

January 15: Martin Luther King Jr. is born, and goes on to be a civil rights leader and Nobel laureate

January 17: Thimble Theatre shows the comic strip hero Popeye for the first time

January 29: Erich Maria Remarque publishes ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ in book form

January 31: Officially expelled from the Soviet Union, Leon Trotsky is sent into exile

February

February 2: Norway take ownership of Peter I Island located near Antarctica

February 3: Valencia declare Martial law as Spanish army break down anti-government revolt

February 6: The Kellogg-Briand Pact which aims to promote peace and reduce war is signed by Germany

February 9: The Soviet Union, Poland, Estonia, Romania and Latvia sign ‘Litvinov’s Pact’ and agree not to use force to settle disputes between them

February 14: Five gangsters and two civilians are killed in Chicago on what is known as ‘St Valentine’s Day Massacre’

February 18: The United States create the Migratory Bird Conservation Act

February 21: Federal Aviation Advisor at the U.S. Department of Commerce is appointed toCharles Lindbergh

February 26: The United States Congress establish the Grand Teton National Park

March

March 2: The San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge is opened and becomes the longest bridge in the world at the time

March 2: To ward people off violating prohibition, the Increased Penalties Act begins in the United States

March 3: Due to unusual and extreme cold weather, 2,390 are reported to die in France between February 21 and March 3

March 4: The 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover is sworn in

March 6: A treaty of friendship is signed between Turkey and Bulgaria

March 10: Limited rights to divorce are granted to the women of Egypt

March 28: Mickey Mouse is seen wearing gloves for the first time in the short cartoon ‘The Opry House’

March 30: Flights between London and Karachi begin through newly operating Imperial Airways

April

April 3: The ‘Litvinov Protocol’, an international peace treaty which aims to accelerate the Kellogg-Briand Pact, is signed by Persia

April 4: When a train derails in Romania, 20 people are killed with a further 59 injured

April 12: Utah’s Arches National Park is declared a National Monument

April 14: William Grover-Williams wins the Monaco Grand Prix in a Bugatti

April 14: For the first time, 15,000 letters are delivered from India to the United Kingdom via airmail

April 22: Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, declares that crime is the country’s most serious problem, and warns that the country is ‘more unsafe than any other civilised country in the world’

April 27: Portsmouth are defeated by Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium

April 30: For the second time, Thorvald Stauning is announced as Prime Minister of Denmark

May

May 4: Birthdate of Audrey Hepburn, British actress and activist

May 4: Laurel and Hardy release their first talking film ‘Unaccustomed As We Are’, which sees the use of their famous catchphrases for the first time

May 7: In Sydney, Australia the ‘Battle of Blood Alley’ is fought by a razor gang

May 7: Al Capone beats and shoots three gang members after accusing them of being traitors, whilst at a party he is holding for them. Their bodies are found on the side of a road in Indiana the next day

May 16: In the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the first ever Academy Awards are held, with the ceremony lasting 15 minutes

May 18: After being arrested for carrying concealed weapons, Al Capone is imprisoned at Holmesburg Jail - a key date in this 1929 timeline

May 19: After a downpour of rain during a Yankees and Boston Red Sox baseball game, two people are killed when the crowd causes a stampede running for the stairs

May 31: The general election in the United Kingdom brings a hung parliament and the Liberals decide which party will govern

June

June 1: Buenos Aires hosts the first ever Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America

June 3: The disputes between Peru and Chile are settled with the Treaty of Lima

June 4: The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Stanley Baldwin, resigns

June 7: After the Lateran Treaty is agreed, Vatican City becomes an independent state

June 8: In the United Kingdom, the second Labour government is formed by Ramsay MacDonald

June 12: Birthdate of German-born holocaust victim Anne Frank

June 21: Helping to end the Cristero War in Mexico, an agreement is brokered by U.S. Ambassador Dwight Whitney Morrow

June 27: Images of a bouquet of roses and an American flag are broadcast, making the first public demonstration of colour TV, one of the major events in 1929

July

July 1: A pact is signed and leads Britain to agree to build up the Chinese navy

July 5: Helen Wills defeats Helen Jacobs to gain her third straight Wimbledon title

July 23: China and the Soviet Union agree to meet for peace talks

July 24: Due to ill health Raymond Poincaré resigns as French Prime Minister

July 25: In a procession witnessed by 250,000 people, Pope Pius XI enters St Peter’s Square and ends 60 years of self-imposed status by the papacy as Prisoner in the Vatican

July 27: Covering the treatment of prisoners of war, the Geneva Convention is signed in Switzerland

July 29: Aristide Briand replaces Raymond Poincaré, and becomes the French Prime Minister for the sixth time

July 30: With a total of 17 days in the air, the world flight endurance record is extended a week by Curtiss Robin

August

August 6: Allowing British troops along the Suez Canal, a treaty is signed which ends British occupation of Egypt, replacing it with a military alliance

August 8: Leaving from New Jersey for Europe, the Graf Zeppelin begins an attempt to fly around the world

August 16: A total of 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians are killed during the 1929 Palestine riots in Mandatory Palestine

August 17: A coal mine in Poland explodes and 16 people are killed

August 23: 65-68 Jews are killed by Palestinians and the remaining Jews are forced to leave Hebron during the Hebron massacre

August 29: 18-20 Jews are killed during the Safed massacre by Palestinian Arabs

August 29: The Graf Zeppelin returns after 21 days (12 of those in the air) following the worldwide trip

August 31: To settle the WW1 reparations owed by Germany ($26,350,000,000), the Young Plan is finalised

September

September 3: To investigate the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine, Great Britain appoints a four-person investigation committee

September 3: The first of two typhoons in the space of a month strike the Philippines causing over 100 deaths and 20 million pesos worth of damage

September 5: A plan for the ‘United States of Europe’ is put forward by Aristide Briand

September 13: Following a gas explosion in Italy, 12 people are killed and 15 injured

September 16: A coal mine explosion in France kills 23 people and injures a further 21

September 17: Antanas Smetona becomes President of Lithuania after a coup ousts Augustinas Voldemaras

September 27: ‘A Farewell to Arms,’ the novel written by Ernest Hemingway, is published

September 28: One of the landmark 1929 events for India: no man below the age of 18 or woman below the age of 16 can marry after the Child Marriage Restraint Act is passed in India

October

October 1: The Soviet Union and Britain restore diplomatic relations

October 2: A committee is formed to discuss the possibility of creating national parks in Britain

October 12: For the first time in Australian history, the sitting Prime Minister loses his own seat in parliament; Prime Minister Stanley Bruce faces defeat by The Labour Party’s James Scullin

October 22: Aristide Briand’s French government falls

October 22: Becoming the 9th Prime Minister of Austria, James Scullin is elected

October 26: In support of the anti-Young Plan referendum rally in Munich, Adolf Hitler and Alfred Hugenberg attend together

October 26: After a trial with yellow and red buses is unpopular, it is decided that all London buses would be red going forward

October 29: After three high percentage drops wipe out over $30 billion of the New York Stock exchange, the great Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurs which leads to the Great Depression

November

November 1: Over the Atlantic Ocean and in Africa an annular solar eclipse is seen

November 1: Australian conscription ends

November 2: André Tardieu becomes the 97th French Prime Minister and the third person within one week to attempt to form the next French government

November 5: In India, running from Bombay to Pune, the largest electrified railway in the British Empire opens and begins running

November 12: Grace Kelly is born, goes on to be an American actress and later Princess of Monaco

November 17: In Berlin town council elections, the Nazis win 13 out of 225 seats

November 18: The Grand Banks earthquake occurs in the Atlantic Ocean killing at least 27 people

November 20: Salvador Dalí, Spanish surrealist painter, has his first one-man Paris show

December

December 4: In a vote to decide whether diplomatic relations should be resumed with the Soviet Union, the House of Lords votes 43 to 21 against resuming

December 6: Turkey give women the right to vote

December 10: Frank Billings Kellogg from the United States receives the 1929 Nobel Peace prize

December 16: A $160 million income tax reduction bill is signed by President Hoover

December 24: After a serious fire in the West Wing of the White House President Hoover leaves a Christmas reception for children to retrieve important documents. It is the most severe fire at the White House since 1814

December 25: As a Christmas present the government of Saxony grant 179 prisoners amnesty

December 28: ‘Black Saturday’ sees New Zealand colonial police kill 11 unarmed demonstrators in Samoa, leading to the Mau movement for independence of Samoa

December 31: Before the Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi makes a speech in support of Indian Independence, and the resolution is passed unanimously

Providing a summary of what happened in 1929, this timeline offers a window into the past. With worldwide changes being made by multiple governments in an attempt to achieve world peace and increasing laws giving rights to women and children, 1929 was a year of transformation. Best known for the Wall Street Crash that led to a time of Great Depression; the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialised world, 1929 was the turning point of an era.